


Hold Me Here, Until I Sleep

by dreamyemptysouls



Series: HSWC 2014 [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Sburb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:21:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1782178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamyemptysouls/pseuds/dreamyemptysouls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>John/Rose/Dave/Jade</b>
</p>
<p><i>Ya’aburnee (Arabic):</i> literally meaning ‘you bury me’, this is the hope that a person or loved one will outlive you as to spare yourself the pain of living life beyond that person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold Me Here, Until I Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [HSWC 2014 Bonus Round 2](http://hs-worldcup.dreamwidth.org/19285.html?thread=4541013#cmt4541013) prompt.
> 
> **Recommended listening:** [Cadence - Anberlin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igWoMhfde4A)

"Okay, dude. Pick a card. Any card."  
  
You slide a finger across the cards displayed to you and pick a random one.  
  
"Don't show it to me! Now put it back on the deck. Yeah, that's great."  
  
You cross your arms over your chest and smirk.  
  
"Now I'm gonna shuffle... and reveal your card back to you!!"  
  
You watch as a look of panic takes over his face, but he tries to dismiss it.  
  
"Hmm. Was it this one?"  
  
You chuckle, shaking your head.  
  
"No, Egbert. You let it fall to the floor like a fucking doofus."  
  
He jolts when he sees the guilty card by his feet. You sit back as he grumbles to collect it (and his trans-generational magician pride), then walking off to target either of the girls.  
  
Over the years, this has become something like a religious holiday. You don't start a calendar without flipping through the pages till April, and marking the 13th with several overlapping circles, forming a spirograph. Sometimes it feels like the rest of the year is just a preparation to go through this day all over again.  
  
John attempts his magic trick on Rose, forgetting that she deals in sorcery way darker than he could ever imagine, and never stopped being a Seer.  
  
Unexplainably, she ends producing the card she had picked and returned from her pocket, leaving John whining.  
  
"WELL, thanks for being such a good sport!!"  
  
He would have attempted the trick on Jade, but his sister could make whole planets bigger or smaller at will. Defeated, he ends up joining you on the couch, letting himself fall with a thump.  
  
Just as you expect him to - just as you WANT him to - he gives off a sigh and lays across the couch instead, resting his head on your lap. He grins like a goof up at you, and you can't help but run a hand through his hair. This seems to act as a beacon - something you also both expected and hoped - and before you know it, Jade and Rose are cuddled up on the couch too, burying you in a pile of human warmth and tenderness that you've been craving for months. Jade never lost all of the dog in her. She lays across your lap too, throwing an arm over John and another around your waist. Rose, the smallest of your small group, nestles on them, hooking her legs on the back of the couch.  
  
You remember well, John's first birthday after the game ended. For a whole year, all four of you did your best efforts, readapting to a plane of reality you no longer belonged to.  
  
It was strange, how your mind worked. On one hand, you had all welcomed the return of your guardians and normality with open arms. On the other hand, The Game had changed you too much, tearing bits here and stitching whole new tapestries there. To be back, you had to stash those tapestries away, woven of silk and gold, emblazoned with the crests that had given you godhood. You'd sit in school, or would walk outside, or hug your guardians, and you were very aware of the tapestry you had to hide. How good was it for you, to separate yourselves from such an important part of you?  
  
When John's birthday finally came round, you were divided between the pleas to the sky, that it would have mercy on you and send you no more meteors, and the thrill, the certainty, that something exciting had to happen, to pull you away from this unnatural monotony you had trapped yourselves into.  
  
The whole day was a nightmare, up to the moment Jade created a Pesterchum memo just for the four of you, and you stayed up video chatting till the wee hours of the night.  
  
Rose and Jade were the first ones to fall, asleep on their keyboards and occasionally typing out such eloquent sentences as, "ljkdsjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj" or "rewpfys9ay8ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg". While John and you fought to fend off sleep, with him wearing some ridiculous party hat he had dug out from the attic, you didn't even care, how easy it was, to allow the stoic barrier to fall.  
  
John touched the screen of his laptop on camera, and he looked as if he were about to start crying. "I missed you guys. Thanks for making this birthday awesome again," his voice cracked.  
  
You removed your shades, folding them and placing them on the desk before you. Your hand moved to overlap his on the screen, and you smiled. "You too, buddy... We sure as fuck need to do this again next time... and earlier too, so that these snoozers can catch some of this choice tender bro-lovin' that is taking place right now."  
  
You remembered the sound of him giggling, which the static could never manage to dim. You stayed like this till eventually all four of you were asleep.  
  
From there it was easy to come up with an official plan, for you to get together every year, for John's birthday, for the date where all four of you became something so much more. Luckily, you had all been blessed with wealth: between John's Crocker heritage, your Bro's puppet porn income and Rose's Mom findings, it was easy to always have the cash for a plane ride all the way to each other's house. Jade might not be wealthy, but no one can really tell her what to do, and she can do whatever she pleases, with all her powers to bend space to her will.

So today you celebrate the tenth year of this amazing plan, this time in John's house. Even if you don't fit as well in this couch as the first time, feet dangling from the edges, there's more of you for each other to love, and to soothe, and it's exactly everything all four of you have been waiting for, and have wanted.  
  
Under this pile of fluff, you manage to bury yourself deeper, laying across the couch, allowing black and blonde hair to fall on yours, on your chest, to thread between your fingers. Strong or delicate arms, paler or darker in color, squish around your middle, or have hands that cradle your face, and in turn yours squish back, allow yourself to touch, to remind yourself that all of this is real, all of this is the realest part of your life.  
  
Under this pile of fluff, all four of you find your godhood once more, but for once, you want more than anything to remain mortal.  
  
May they bury you like this every year of your life, and if they can't anymore, may they bury you for good.  
  
All your life - all your real life as the time player - they have always come first, you have always buried dead Dave after dead Dave so that Time would spare them, would keep them safe, would bring them back to you.  
  
You know how much they oppose this, you know how much they'd do the same for you, put their lives on the line so that you could be safe, but that's how you know that they're worth it, every dead Dave buried so that you can be like this today.  
  
John makes a silly joke, and you all can't help but laugh, making the whole pile tremble.  
  
Later you'll have cake, and go to the beach and screech at how cold the water still is, at this point of the year, but right now, you wouldn't wish to be anywhere else in the world.  
  
They bury you.  
  
You pray to Father Time that they'll do so, until the end of your days.


End file.
